Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street logs a 3rd straight winning week

BANGKOK AP Asian shares are mixed and U S futures have edged higher after U S stocks logged their third straight winning week Markets were closed for a holiday in Japan where the ruling Liberal Democrats have lost their coalition majorities in both houses of parliament for the first time since following Sunday s voting and the loss of their lower house majority in October A grim Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has vowed to stay on but the outcome of the upper house balloting reflects voters frustration with rising prices and political instability Analysts mentioned they expect his weakened leadership to crank up spending adding to Japan s huge debt burden Japan is also facing the imposition of tariffs across the board on its exports to the U S as talks with the Trump administration appear to have made little headway We expect short-term political instability to intensify due to the difficulties of forming a majority coalition a likely change in leadership and a promising deadlock in deal negotiations Peter Hoflich of BMI a part of the Fitch Group declared in a commentary Without a structural reset through snap elections Japan is likely to face prolonged framework drift throughout he reported Chinese shares advanced after the central bank kept its key -year and -year loan prime interest rates unchanged Hong Kong s Hang Seng rose to while the Shanghai Composite index gained to Latest stronger economic figures have eased pressure on the Chinese leadership to soften credit Meanwhile President Donald Trump s administration has softened its criticism of Beijing raising hopes that the two sides can work out a commerce deal and avert the imposition of sharply higher tariffs on imports from China South Korea s Kospi picked up to after the cabinet disclosed a slight improvement in exports in June In Australia the S P ASX shed to while Taiwan s Taiex dropped In India the Sensex rose while Bangkok s SET was down This week will bring updates on U S home sales jobless contends and manufacturing Several Big Tech companies including Alphabet and Tesla are due to provide earnings reports On Friday the S P handed back less than point after setting an all-time high the day before The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than to add its own record Norfolk Southern chugged higher after an AP source declared it was discussing a merger with Union Pacific to create the largest railroad in North America one that would connect the East and West coasts Any such deal though would likely face tough scrutiny from U S regulators Union Pacific s stock fell The heaviest weight on the territory meanwhile was Netflix which fell despite reporting a stronger-than-expected profit Exxon Mobil sank and also tugged on the sector It had been challenging Chevron s billion deal to buy Hess but an arbitration ruling in Paris about Hess assets off Guyana s coast allowed the buyout to go through Chevron fell after losing an early gain Treasury yields eased after a overview suggested U S consumers may be feeling less fearful about coming inflation They re bracing for inflation of in the year ahead down from last month s projection of according to preliminary results from a University of Michigan survey Prices may already be starting to feel the upward effects of President Donald Trump s higher tariffs according to figures disclosed last week The Trump administration is preparing to impose steeper import duties on multiple countries as of Aug although a few have worked out deals to mitigate specific of the damage In other trading early Monday U S benchmark crude oil gained cents to per barrel Brent crude the international standard added cents to per barrel The U S dollar rose to Japanese yen from yen The euro slipped to from Source